Some games that we’ve created for Sedis are completely new creations and others are inspired by other games we’ve played. Blüf, my favorite Sedis game with an umlaut, is based off poker – specifically stud poker. We are also working on a variant based on Texas Hold’em called Blüf Tejas.

What you may not know about me is that I used to be a pretty serious recreational poker player. As in, I played 7 days a week for a few years in my 20s. I’ve won a couple of large tournaments and even moonlighted as a pit boss for a company for several years. I had a reputation as a conservative player, which gave me ample ability to bluff – I almost never got caught.

How to Play Blüf with Sedis

Sedis Betting

Setup

Players must ante – placing an agreed-upon initial bet in order to play.

Players who have anted draws five tiles into a hand. Player may look at their tiles but should not show them to rival players.

Play

Each player attempts to arrange their five tiles in such a way as to have the highest score or to make other players believe they have the highest score. Players may reorder or rotate tiles in their hand. Hands are scored by counting the number of matching pips between vertically stacked tiles.

After each player has decided the order and orientation of their tiles, place them on the playing surface in a face up stack with only the top tile showing.

Once all players have placed their full stack in front of them, betting begins. Starting with a designated starting player, each player in turn bets. Subsequent players have the option of calling the bet, raising the bet, or withdrawing from play.

Once all players have called the highest bet or withdrawn, players enter the reveal phase of play. During this phase, all players remove the top tile from their stack of play, placing this tile next to the unrevealed tiles, in order.

As each tile is removed from each player’s stack, betting is revisited, with each player declaring the number of points they have currently revealed before betting continues. At each step of the reveal phase of betting, players have the option of checking (if no raise has occurred), calling the current bet, raising the bet further, or withdrawing from play.

Win

If all players but one have withdrawn, the remaining player is the winner and receives the full pool of bets placed. If two or more players continue until the last reveal, the player with the highest total matching pip count wins. If two or more players have the same total matching pip count in the end, they split the pot evenly.

What other classic card games can you recreate with Sedis? We have only a few days left in the Sedis Kickstarter campaign. We’ve met our minimum goal, so getting a set of Sedis tiles won’t be a gamble.

Hi. My name appears at the bottom of this article, but please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Neal Murthy, and my title at Nefer Games is Final Boss. There’s a lot of things that come with that title, but the most important thing is accountability. This post is about just that.

I love games – especially tabletop games, which I’ve loved since I can remember anything. I was given a Pachisi set by my grandfather 30 years ago, which set off a lifelong love of not only playing games, but creating them too. Until recently, my creations have been shared only with close friends and family, but my good friend Mike Korupp and I decided to create a company – this company, Nefer Games – to bring some of these games to market.

We’re starting with Sedis, a tile-based game system with which players can play a multitude of games of their own or others’ (including our) creation. Sedis tiles have an arrangement of pips and blanks (dots and circles) around the outer edge. The arrangement of these pips is developed using a method quite different from that of dominoes and playing cards, which rely primarily on the intersection of two things (two sets of numbers, 0-6, in the case of double-sixes dominoes, and ranks and suits, in the case of standard playing cards). Sedis is developed using a different application of mathematics.

Now, I have a mathematics background, and I often see the world through this perspective, so… despite the visual similarity between Sedis and dominoes, I asserted that it was not a derivative of dominoes (such as Tri-ominoes or others), but rather a wholly new game system unto itself. To validate my claim, I sought responses from gamers I know and around the country, and they validated it. So, it was my public assertion that this thing was wholly different from dominoes or playing cards – and as such, was something totally new to the world after hundreds of years. Regrettably, I did not seek further guidance from others such as those gamers on Reddit or BoardGameGeek (two important communities).

Recently, we launched our Kickstarter campaign. As part of this campaign, I had an interview with a local magazine. My claims were stated, and the magazine published them – with an even more hyperbolic title: Did This Houstonian Just Reinvent the Board Game?

My answer to this query-formatted title is “No,” but I still stood by the claim that Sedis was a different thing than dominoes and playing cards.

Then, the internet took over. The claim was chewed up by online communities at BoardGameGeek, Reddit and Facebook (along with the article itself). Naturally, I tried to defend the claim, but the response was (generally) thoughtful and critical rebuttal. Overall, I was using a highly non-standard classification and my assertion was based on this. It’s important to note here that things like classifications and language as a whole is not something to be chalked up to “differences in semantics;” these things are tools of communities, and they’re extremely important to these communities. I was not using the standards of the community I was hoping to serve.

There were exceptions to the thoughtful critiques – in both directions. Some were highly supportive. Then there was this via Reddit (private message)…

You poor brown piece of s***. Go back to whatever country you came from. Your bulls*** is not wanted in America. Kill yourself you f****** sack of worthless garbage. I hope our family dies in a car accident. Your family deserves to die and you deserve to be alone you c***.

Now, I want to be very clear here. There were snarky comments on Reddit. There were comments which were personal in nature. But, there was nothing like this on the public thread. This was my first exposure to Reddit and I was appalled. One of the moderators on the subreddit had messaged me, so I brought this to his attention. The response was swift; this was not acceptable in the Reddit community, and it would be dealt with severely.

At the same time as this message arrived, I also recognized my ill-informed hubris. The members of these communities generally turned from critique to mentorship. They were supportive of Sedis – just not the way I was messaging the claims. And, I was humbled. I then quickly stated my regret and intention to change our messaging. We’ve now done so, for the most part, and Sedis stands on its own merits.

And, that’s the thing. If a game or any other product is created, it should stand on its own merits. The comparisons and contrasts with other things will come on their own.

Nefer Games is all about social connections through play in the physical-social space – forging cultural connections and norms, and developing real skills and experiences. But, you know, sometimes the digital world ain’t so bad. It connects people with vast experiences across vast distances. I’m grateful to now be a member of these wonderful online communities, and I hope that they will welcome me back – a changed man. I’ve been fortunate to build two software companies and a decent consultancy. But, now I’m starting at the beginning, learning to be a commercial game designer and the head of a game company.

Thank you, anonymous Reddit/FB/BGG members, for making me a better person. I hope I can return the favor one day.

SEDIS Launch Party

SEDIS is finally going to take the next step into becoming a reality. We are launching our Kickstarter Thursday, April 27. To celebrate we are throwing a party at Under The Radar Brewery (1506 Truxillo St, Houston, TX 77004) from 6-9pm.

Come and be one of the first people to play and experience SEDIS. What better way to see how fun and exciting a game is by actually being able to touch and play it. RSVP for the party below.

Hope we can see you at the party and show you what we have been working on. Also, sign up for our newsletter to keep track of our Kickstarter and other events in the future. Newsletter: https://nefergames.com/sign-up/